Thompson, who edited the Sunday Telegraph for 10 years from 1976, was mild of manner and ran a kindly regime but had "an inner steel", wrote Faulks.

This characteristic was necessary, as both Faulks and the obituary pointed out, because of the difficulties he faced in producing a paper in Fleet Street's final days of continual union disputes.

Faulks pointed out that it was difficult to know Thompson well because "he was a diffident man who did not invite intimacy." It reminded me of a description of him by Henry Porter as "retiring to the point of joining a trappist order."

But Faulks and the Telegraph's obituarist overlooked Thompson's most extraordinary, and disastrous, decision as an editor. In 1978, the Sunday Telegraph negotiated the serialisation of an autobiography by a former Liberal MP, Peter Bessell, who was a chief prosecution witness in the trial of Jeremy Thorpe, his party's leader.

Thorpe was accused of conspiring to murder a male model, Norman Scott, who was said to have blackmailed him over their alleged gay relationship.

Two months after Thorpe was charged, Thompson agreed a contract with Bessell which stated that he would receive £50,000 for extracts from his book if Thorpe was convicted. However, should Thorpe be found innocent, then Bessell would receive only £25,000.

When Bessell was forced under cross-examination to reveal the details of the deal, a public row broke out. As defending counsel argued, and the judge agreed, Bessell stood to gain by ensuring that Thorpe was found guilty.

Thompson, having already published two parts, quickly withdrew from the contract. He and the paper were fortunate not have been prosecuted for contempt of court.

Instead, the Press Council - the regulator prior to the Press Complaints Commission - censured the paper for a "flagrant breach" of guidelines that outlawed payments to trial witnesses.